


Accordion

by monj



Category: You Could Make a Life Series - Taylor Fitzpatrick
Genre: 5+1 Things, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Getting Together, M/M, Multi, Polyamory, Polyamory Negotiations
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-31
Updated: 2017-05-31
Packaged: 2018-11-06 17:14:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,478
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11040663
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/monj/pseuds/monj
Summary: Five times that Kiro had to initiate a conversation and one time that David was actually the calm one.





	Accordion

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to the hosts of this minibang - I haven't written fic in so long and it was good to get back in the groove. Thank you to my most wonderful beta for whipping my poor late night punctuation into shape. It was hard to keep this at a length that could be completed on a minibang time frame - I hope there's some other multi-shippers out there to enjoy!
> 
> And check out this [amazing art](http://archiveofourown.org/works/11062605) that [wilde_stallyn](http://archiveofourown.org/users/wilde_stallyn/pseuds/wilde_stallyn) made for this!

1.

The thing was, Kiro meant it as a joke. It had taken approximately twenty minutes into dinner with Lourdes to realize that, whatever their past, David was still fixated on him. It was also clear that David had spent so long stuffing himself into hiding that he had no idea what to do with his feelings besides be stressed about Lourdes and all Lourdes-adjacent conversations. It had been natural to drop the knowledge of the 100-mile rule that he had with Emily into conversation and gently flirt with him—anything to get him to be a little less tightly wound around the edges, internal pressure marbled through with fear. The guy reacted like he’d never had a conversation about his sexuality that wasn’t life or death before, and maybe he hadn’t. It couldn’t be allowed to continue, and, knowing Davidson, it wasn’t something that be approached subtly.

So he lured David out one night with a five-star Yelp review of seasoned fries. David was easier now with going out, when the next day was an off day anyway, so at least Kiro had gotten him to loosen up that much. Then Kiro waited until David had gone through the first wave of unhealthy food guilt and had mellowed into a wave of potato-y good feelings and the better part of a beer.

“You know,” he said, nudging at David with his foot and waiting until he looked up, “when I joked with you that here is over 100 miles from Emily, I’m not entirely joking.”

David looked at him blankly. “That...it’s over 100 miles?” he asked.

“No, I mean, it is over a hundred miles, but it does not have to be a joke between us,” Kiro said, trying to impart as much meaning into his voice as possible.

Meaning that evidently went over Davidson’s head because now he just looked concerned. “I’m sorry if I’ve made you think…if I said something that…” he trailed off.

Communication was important, Kiro reminded himself. Emily was always drumming into him that there came a time when he had to put aside his joking and flirting and actually talk. “No, no. I’m saying this wrong.” He took a deep breath. “I’m saying that we are good friends, and I am over 100 miles from Emily, so if you wanted to—to invoke that rule, I would enjoy very much.”

David was staring at him now, a fry hanging half out of his open mouth, but didn’t seem able to muster up any words yet.

Feeling unusually flustered, Kiro continued. “I know that you are uncomfortable with people knowing…about you. So I thought I would be safe, and also, again, we are friends. It would be fun!” He looked at David, still staring but starting to flush and bug out about the eyes a little, and nudged the fry basket closer. “Think about it. If never mention it again, we still best friends. If want yes, we can talk about more.”

He nudged the fry basket again and took one for himself and then occupied himself very intently with his own beer for a good minute, giving David the time he needed to compose himself.

Finally he heard, “Are you serious?” and looked up, making sure to meet David’s eyes.

“Yes, am serious,” he said. “I would not joke with you about this, Davidson.” David looked, well, stunned. He was absently eating fries, so that was a good sign, but he also looked like he’d been smacked and also like he was maybe beginning to panic a little. But at least he hadn’t bolted from the restaurant.

“I don’t—“ David stopped and then started again. “I didn’t—“

Kiro nudged his foot up against David’s until David fell silent. “Davidson. David. Breathe.”

David did, and that got them through another couple of minutes until David started looking calmer. “I don’t know what to say,” he said quietly. He would only meet Kiro’s eyes in short, furtive glances now.

“It’s okay, Davidson,” Kiro assured him. “Don’t have to say anything. Just…keep in mind? Can do whatever you feel comfortable with, even if that means nothing.” He managed to catch David’s eyes and waggled his eyebrows. “Or anything.” That, at least, got David to crack the smallest part of a smile, and Kiro let them sit in silence for a couple more minutes while David contemplated things and then moved the conversation on. Surprisingly, David let him and didn’t act more than a little jumpy the rest of the night. Considering David nearly always acted a little jumpy, Kiro was counting that as a win for communication.

The next morning though, David was back to acting really jumpy. Not enough for Vladislav to say anything, but enough that Kiro definitely noticed. David wasn’t avoiding him exactly—he still laughed at Kiro’s jokes and responded to his chirps. But sometimes there was a slight delay, and Kiro caught him staring more than once. He didn’t say anything, figuring this was a time to let David work things out for himself. He really couldn’t tell which way it was going to go. With David, fidgety could mean either thing.

It was only two days later that David awkwardly caught his eye when Vladislav had briefly left the room. “Can we talk later?” he asked quietly, his eyes darting from his water bottle to Kiro to back again.

“Of course, talking to Davidson is my favorite thing,” Kiro said, just to watch the flush deepen across David’s cheekbones.

“No, about what you said a few days ago,” David said, kind of stuttering a little.

“Anytime you want, Davidson,” Kiro said. “Where you thinking?” This didn’t seem like a conversation that David would want to have in public again, but so far he’d also avoided either inviting Kiro to his or going to Kiro’s.

“Oh, uh—“ David fidgeted, clearly not having thought of that.

Kiro took pity on him. “Come over? We’ll order in and talk where no one can overhear or see you blush.”

David scowled a little and blushed some more but agreed.

That night, Kiro watched in amusement from one side of the couch as David studied delivery menus far too seriously on the other. A few times he’d looked hard at Kiro and opened his mouth to say something, but so far he hadn’t come up with anything but an obvious cover up.

Kiro gave him until the food arrived before he started prodding. “You know, I meant it when I say that whatever you want it’s alright. Can just turn me down if that’s what you are trying to make yourself say.”

David choked on a bite of his pad thai. “Are you always so direct about this?” he asked after he’d gulped down some water.

Kiro shrugged. “Emily taught me it is important to communicate about relationships, no matter what kind they are. And she is usually right, so I listened.”

He realized his mistake in mentioning Emily when David withdrew again.

“So she really doesn’t mind?” David asked in a small voice, picking intently at his food.

“No Davidson,” Kiro said gently. “She really doesn’t mind. I can call her so she can tell you this herself if it would make you feel better.”

David looked up, wide-eyed. “No, no. That’s alright. I believe you. I just—” He looked down at his food again. “I don’t think I could do it. If Ja—if the person I was with was with someone else when I was far away.”

Kiro ignored that almost slip for the moment. “Everyone should do the relationship that works best for them.”

“I don’t know if—I’ve never done anything casual,” David said, the words going grating and bitten off by the end, like he was admitting to something wrong.

Kiro in equal parts wanted to wrap David up in a blanket and ravish him. Of course David would bring all his intensity to dating, and of course he’d fixated all that intensity on Jake. He cleared his throat. “We can be casual, if you want, Davidson. But that doesn’t mean it would not be good and meaningful.”

Kiro could see David gearing himself up for something. If it were anyone else, he’d kiss them now, and that would make the evening proceed and it would all be very nice. Kiro always put on a good night, if he did say so himself. But he wouldn’t do that to David. For one thing, he rather imagined that whatever had grown up between Jake and David, it had started with more kissing and less talking, and he wouldn’t start down that path here. He wouldn’t do that to Davidson, because as much as he wanted to start something with him, bring him a little uncomplicated happiness, he wouldn’t break up with Emily for him. They needed to be on the same page so that David wouldn’t get hurt again. So he waited.

David licked his lips nervously. “So we would just…the two of us while we are here. And then during the season we just...pretend we didn’t?”

“No, during the season, maybe we have some fun when I’m in New York, or maybe we just go out for loaded fries like before, but we remember that we were friends before we did anything, and anything that we do is just for the sake of having a good time,” Kiro said patiently. “Not like a dirty secret between us.”

“You make this sound so easy,” David snapped before immediately looking contrite. “Sorry.”

Kiro waved the apology off. “It’s not easy,” he said. “But it doesn’t have to be hard. We get along. We’re both tested, and we can trust each other to be discreet. The risks are small.” He scooted over so he could nudge David with his shoulder. “All you have to do is decide what you want to do.” He leaned back against the couch to watch David consider that. He thought Emily would be proud of him so far, this was a lot of communicating.

David, it seemed, was done with talking, because as Kiro watched he literally squared his shoulders like he was facing a drill and then leaned over Kiro to kiss him, bracing himself on the arm of the couch with one hand and Kiro’s shoulder with the other. He kissed like the competitive bastard he was, forcing Kiro to keep up.

They traded kisses until David was almost panting against his lips and was more or less in his lap. If Kiro had thought about it, he would have expected David to be someone who wanted to skip kissing straight to the action, but he was delighted to be proven wrong. David was a good kisser, and his body felt good under Kiro’s hands. When he slid a hand up David’s back under shirt, David made a noise and settled fully over top Kiro, warm and heavy and squirming a little.

“Yes, get it, Davidson,” Kiro said as David broke away in order to sit back a little and unzip his pants.

David paused. “Are you chirping me?” he asked incredulously, “Right now?”

Kiro took the opportunity to free himself of his own pants. “Not chirping, just encouraging,” he said, tugging David back down. David resisted for a second to frown at him before allowing himself to be drawn back. This time Kiro slid his hands down, got them over David’s admittedly fine ass so he could pull him in tight. They both groaned at the friction.

David looked like he was going to start things like a race, so Kiro held David still against him for a minute—which got him another pout until Kiro leaned up to kiss him again. That turned out to be a great idea, because David relaxed a little against him again as he focused on kissing, and the tiny rutting movements he was making as he did so felt amazing. Kiro felt himself doing his own bit of squirming and pushing up against David, making David groan again.

Kiro mumbled more encouragement as David worked his hand between them and started jerking them off together. He was good at it, just the right amount of friction and pressure until Kiro came with a muffled shout, David following him a few furious strokes later.

They were both quiet and still for a long moment. David had slumped over with his head on Kiro’s shoulder, and Kiro had his head back, wondering if he could meld with the couch. It was just a handjob, but, as with a lot of things involving David, it had been more intense than one might expect. Kiro finally shifted because his legs were falling asleep, and David slid over to sit on the couch beside him. Neither of them spoke until Kiro moved to get up to get them a washcloth and David made to get up too.

Kiro waved him back down and went to clean himself off hastily in the bathroom before grabbing a warm washcloth for David, who was still sitting where Kiro had left him but who was starting to look restive. Kiro was also not surprised that David was not an afterglow person. He was especially not surprised when David started gathering himself together to leave.

“Can stay,” Kiro offered, without much hope. “Watch a movie.”

David looked slightly bewildered to even be asked and mumbled an excuse about needing to get home, and Kiro watched him put on his shoes, feeling unaccountably sad.

“David,” he said before David could get to the door, “it was good? You are good?’

David paused and, encouragingly, met Kiro’s gaze. “Yeah, I’m good,” he said, and Kiro even mostly believed him. “I just—I need to head out.”

Kiro let him escape then, reasonably sure that David was going home because he needed to be alone to process things and not because he was having regrets. He was also pretty sure that David would be squirrely again at training, but he was confident that he could work past that too.

Humming happily to himself, he went to go see if Emily wanted to FaceTime.

2.

“So when are we hanging out when you’re in Pittsburgh?” Kiro asked through the phone.

“Umm.” David tried to remember their schedule. “We get in a day early, because we’re going straight there after Columbus.”

“Perfect! So much Kiro and David time!”

David tried not to think about the ways it wasn’t entirely Kiro and David time. Pittsburgh was the epicenter of the 100-mile zone, and he didn’t like to admit to himself how much he’d enjoyed their summer. Casual. It had been casual. Casual was a thing David did now. He realized that Kiro was still talking. “Wait. Can you repeat that?” he interrupted.

“I said, Emily wants to meet you!”

David ran that by himself another couple of times. “Why?”

Kiro’s voice was warm, probably from thinking about Emily. “Because I’ve told her so many stories about you!”

But. “You told her about…us,” he said. He’d pre-emptively told Kiro he could tell Emily, because the thought of anyone knowing was bad, but the thought of making Kiro have to lie was somehow worse. Besides, he’d reasoned, she couldn’t do anything with the information without also hurting Kiro.

“Yes Davidson, I did. And I keep telling you, it is all good. It’s just dinner, meeting each other’s friends.” Kiro paused. It was a long enough pause that even David could tell there was something being unsaid.

“It’s not just dinner,” he said. Maybe accused.

“No, no, it can just be dinner,” Kiro said. “But it could also…not just be dinner.”

“What,” David said. “So she could decide halfway through dinner to leave and that we can’t have dinner together?” Like if she decided she hated David and hated the 100 mile rule and—

Kiro sighed loudly, but he also sounded suspiciously like he was laughing. “No Davidson, not like that. She wants to meet you because I talk about you a lot, and she thinks we would all get along. Maybe very well.”

David ran through that in his head and came up with nothing. “What is ‘not just dinner’ about that?” he finally asked.

Now Kiro definitely sounded like he was laughing. “Never change, Davidson,” he said, and David let that one go by, like he always let it go by, because Kiro said it a lot. Finally, after he let the judgmental silence continue, Kiro continued. “She thinks you’re hot, Davidson. And she thinks the idea of me and you together is hot. And she wants to explore the idea of the three of us together.”

It took several strangled sounds for David to answer, and what he came out with was, “But I’m gay.”

Kiro hummed. “Could have been bi. How do you feel about her watching?”

David choked. “Watching…us? She wants to do that?”

“Only if you’re into it,” Kiro assured him.

“I’ve never thought about it,” David said. He’d never thought about it because he didn’t know this was a thing real couples did. “This is not the 100 mile rule.”

“We came up with the 100 mile together, because I’m away so much. We can come up with exceptions together too,” Kiro said. He sounded light and confident, like he wasn’t proposing a quasi threesome with his longtime girlfriend.

David felt no desire to do anything with Emily. But the thought of being there with both of them was doing something for him, which he didn’t entirely understand.

“Just think about it,” Kiro said, like he could sense the start of David’s interest. “You don’t have to decide until after dinner. Em just had this idea, but she will not be mad if it makes you too uncomfortable. And you can decide all the details. Just consider it, maybe?”

“Okay, I will,” David said. “Can I—“

“Yes, you can always ask me about any details you’re not sure about,” Kiro said. “But if you try to back out of even just dinner, I will show up at your room with Cheesecake Factory takeout.”

David attempted to glower through his phone. “Fine.”

“Love you too, Davidson!” Kiro sing-songed before hanging up.

David stared at his phone, unsure how his life now included negotiations for possible threesomes. That included a woman. And her very committed boyfriend. Who were letting him decide everything. They’d probably both want to talk about it beforehand too, although he fervently hoped he could get them to have that conversation after dinner, in private. This was a lot different than last year, when he hadn’t even been planning on kissing Ja—anyone until it had actually happened.

Reaching out, he snagged the pad of paper and pen he kept on his kitchen counter. If this was how Emily and Kiro did all parts of their relationship, he wanted to meet their standards and consider all the angles before he got there. ‘Like any other contract negotiation,’ he thought, making columns for hard and soft concerns. He wondered in the back of his head of Dave would be proud of him for that.

3.

Thar first time David let Emily watch them together had been awkward, although it had turned out alright for all concerned in the end. It had taken a number of conversations for Kiro to soothe David back down, and surprisingly, it had taken Emily dropping in on one of their Skype conversations to really settle him.

Kiro was of the opinion that what had really freaked him out was how much he’d enjoyed it. David may have accepted about himself the fact that he wasn’t attracted to women at all, but some switch in him had been thrown by Emily watching them. Emily was of the opinion that it wasn’t a voyeurism thing, it was a Kiro “belonging” to Emily thing. The look on David’s face when she had kissed the top of Kiro’s head and left them with a “have fun, boys” during the Skype call made Kiro suspect she was right.

Regardless, they had a good thing going on, one that Kiro was proud of engineering. He liked to think it was doing David good as well. He was especially proud that David let him come to the NHL awards as his date with only a minimum of jumpiness. When they were in Pittsburgh, he let Emily direct Kiro around and pet his hair afterwards while Kiro snuggled between them. He’d even consented to sharing an apartment while they were training over the summer. So of course the team that made Kiro the best offer was the Panthers. And of course David took that news rationally and insisted that Kiro take that offer and then called back a week later, sounding extremely rough, to say that he didn’t think he could keep doing anything while Kiro was in Florida.

Kiro understood, intellectually. No matter how comfortable David grew around him and Emily, Kiro could still tell he was hung up on Jake. He couldn’t say it didn’t hurt though. At least Jake still seemed hung up on David too. He wouldn’t directly say anything to Kiro about it, but whenever Kiro posted pictures of Orange in David’s jersey or he caught Kiro texting to David, he had a look on his face that was a harsh mix of jealousy and longing. It came out clearer, after the semi-disastrous birthday dinner for David, when Kiro caught them talking in the secluded hallway to the bathroom. He’d snuck away before they saw him, and after that David had been all over the place in the cab.

He wasn’t going to do anything to help Jake—he was still semi-pissed at him for the revelation that he’d outed David to his friends when he’d explicitly known that David hadn’t wanted that—but he did do his best to nudge David along when David started talking about the All-Star break, which Jake was also attending. David’s happiness was first and foremost, and if it wasn’t with him and Emily, he’d do his best by David. Or quietly dump Jake’s body in the ocean if he hurt David again.

What he should have expected though was for David to tell him “It just feels like cheating” over FaceTime.

“Cheating?” Kiro asked. “David, we broke it off when I signed here. Is not cheating.”

“Yeah, but after we…the first time. It feels weird.” David’s face was slowly turning bright red, and Kiro wished he was close enough to give him a hug. Maybe he would text Robbie to do that later. Robbie would do it without needing a reason.

“Do you still have feelings for him?” Kiro asked, and David just blushed more.

“I don’t want you to think I was just using you,” David mumbled finally.

Kiro laughed. “Davidson, we had to persuade you into all of it. We make the first step, I knew you had history with him, still had feelings.”

“I don’t know,” he said, ducking his head a little. “I—it hurt a lot before.”

“It’s just one weekend,” Kiro said, privately strengthening his resolve to dump Jake’s body into the ocean if it went bad again. “Don’t have to do anything. Can just—slap the tires—”

“Kick the tires,” David interrupted.

“Kick the tires, then. See what he has to say, and go from there, or can back off if you don’t feel comfortable with him after last time,” Kiro continued. “But it is not cheating. Emily and me would be happy if you are happy.”

David nodded, and Kiro could tell from his face that he was thinking hard now. Hopefully he was re-examining his priorities now that Kiro had said he didn’t feel cheated on.

“I’ll just see what he says then,” he finally said. “There’s the game and the skills competition anyway—there probably won’t be a lot of time for personal things.”

Kiro rolled his eyes and hoped that David got a roommate that wouldn’t murder him.

“Besides,” David finished, “he might not actually want to get back together. I shouldn’t read too much into it.”

Kiro just burst out laughing and kept it up until David cut the connection with a scowl.

4.

Jake had spent a lot of time in the two days since he’d been back from the All-Star game looking down at his phone with a dopey smile on a his face, which made it pathetically easy for Kiro to block him into his stall after practice and say, “Let’s go to lunch.”

Jake looked up at him, eyes wide, then narrowed, then carefully blank. “Sure.”

Kiro waited until they were both seated across from each other at a burger place that the team regularly frequented. Jake also waited, which impressed Kiro. “So,” he said to see where Jake began.

Jake fidgeted for a second, and then blurted. “Is this a trap?” He blanched. “I mean, have you talked to David recently?”

Kiro let himself smirk a little, since it made Jake squirm. “I’ve talked to David, yes. He told me all about All-Star break.” And told him not to hassle Jake about it, but this was only a little bit hassling.

Jake fidgeted some more and then forced himself to stop and meet Kiro’s eyes. “Is this where you tell me if I break his heart again you’ll break my face? Because I think I would break my own face if I did that to him. Again.”

The ‘again’ made Kiro cancel at least part of his planned lecture. “You talk to him before you do anything. You make him talk to you if you think he’s upset or hiding something.”

Jake half scowled at him. “Yeah yeah, communication is important and all that jazz. I told you—I’m not going to make the same mistakes.”

“No.” Kiro leaned forward and made sure to keep his face straight for once. “This is important. I’ve spent the last few years getting the idea that he should talk about his feelings into his head. Do not mess up my work, Lourdes.”

Jake nodded, fidgeted and then occupied himself with his fries. “I want him to be happy.”

“Good. Me too,” Kiro said, leaning back again. He watched Jake carefully as he added, “And that’s also why we needed to talk. You think I couldn’t just give you threat talk in locker room some day?”

Jake looked up, expression suddenly wary. “He told me that he’d slept with you, but that he ended it when you signed here, if that’s what you’re referring to.” He didn’t look as angry as he had during that first lunch where Kiro had met him, which was good.

“Yes. We did and he did, and we need to make sure it’s all good between us, because if he thinks he has to choose between us, it will not be good for him.”

Jake immediately shook his head. “No, no. You’re right. I was really jealous when I met you, but you…make him really happy. You’re important to him. I’ll try—”

“I’m not going to try to take him back from you,” Kiro said when Jake trailed off. “I could tell he still missed you, even when he was with me and Emily.”

Jake choked on his fries. “You and Emily?” he gasped when he’d gulped some water and stopped coughing. “I thought—David doesn’t even like girls.”

Kiro let the smugness show on his face, just a little bit. “There’s still a lot you can do if you are creative.”

Jake was boggling at him, and this was why David had agreed to Kiro having this talk. Kiro had gotten him to agree that they needed to be honest with Jake up front, but David, for all his progress actually talking about relationships, still was not that great with detail. In this instance, Kiro was grateful so that he had a chance to witness this expression on Jake’s face.

Jake finally spluttered, “He wouldn’t even let us have two minutes of afterglow when we started—and now you’re saying—” He trailed off again, staring into the space above Kiro’s shoulder. He focused again. “The chances of us all getting drunk together and him spilling some deets are pretty slim, right?”

“Probably close to zero,” Kiro said agreeably. “Maybe slightly higher if you get Emily there too. She thinks you are amusing.”

“David would have a heart attack though,” Jake said, focusing in on Kiro again.

“Yes.” Kiro put on his best scary face. “So you’re not going to be an ass to him about it. He told me to sign here, but he was still very upset. He needs this not to affect what is between you.”

Jake was leaning back now, still looking a little stunned. But Kiro thought there was maybe a little bit more respect there now too? He hoped so anyway. He didn’t want to have to break his captain’s face. “It doesn’t – won’t,” he said. “I’m just glad he was happy.”

Jake’s phone buzzed on the table beside him, and he glanced at it. “David. Did he know you were going to do this today?”

Kiro nodded.

Jake picked up his phone. “I’ll just tell him that it’s going well then,” he said, swiping the phone open. He was already smiling dopily down at it.

Kiro sighed, but went to text David his own reassurances. You want David to be happy, he reminded himself.

5.

David had been acting weird for over a week when Kiro went to corner Jake again and found Jake on his way to corner Kiro. “Lunch?” he suggested when Jake just stared at him in surprise.

“David’s been acting weird,” Jake said as soon as they’d gotten settled.

“I was going to say the same thing,” Kiro said. “Was going to ask you if anything had happened.”

Jake was fiddling with his straw wrapper and not meeting his eyes. Kiro waited him out, because Jake, unlike David, couldn’t handle long silences. “I think he misses you guys,” Jake finally muttered.

Kiro blinked. “But we talk as much as we ever used to before,” he said, trying to think back and remember if he’d given any impression that he didn’t want to talk to David as much.

“No, I mean he misses you guys,” Jake said with heavy emphasis.

Kiro gaped at him. “Oh,” he said, at a loss for once. “Really?”

Jake grimaced a little. “Yeah. There’s stuff he’s just more comfortable running by you, or running by you before me, and then he gets upset because we’re dating and he thinks it shouldn’t be like that.”

That sounded like David. “So what do you want to do?” he asked. Jake had been seeking him out, so he must have had something in mind.

“David deserves to be happy,” Jake began. He hesitated, took a deep breath, and started again. “David should be happy.” He stopped again.

“Yes, David should be happy. You will talk to him about how it is okay that he talks to me about things. I will talk to him about how family works. We’ll get him through this,” Kiro said patiently, already planning how he could bring this up to David. He didn’t think it would be too difficult—and he and Emily could steal David for a drink next time he was here to get this all straightened out.

Jake groaned and put his face in his hands. “You’re killing me,” he mumbled. “Just let me say this. David was happy…with you guys.”

Kiro felt something hot and angry bubble up inside of him. “If this is you trying to just…give him back, I’m enacting the breaking your face because you break his heart clause,” he burst out.

Jake jerked his head up to glare. “No, fuck you, Volkov. I’m suggesting…I’m suggesting…more of a time share?” He’d run out of steam at the end and had gone back to mumbling into his hands.

Kiro took the moment to blink at him, because that was not what he’d been expecting. He wet his lips. “You want to…time share David?”

“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but yes,” Jake said. “He loves you guys, I can see that. And what you said last time, about choosing between us hurting him? I think he still sees this as choosing between us.”

Kiro took a long drink to give himself time to think. He hadn’t let himself think about this, because Jake had had difficulties suppressing his possessive tendencies even before he and David were back together. He was surprised Jake could even bring himself to suggest it.

“So how do you see this working?” Kiro asked. “We don’t have enough time to split between us as is.”

The tips of Jake’s ears were turning bright red. “I guess we’ll just all sit down and figure it out,” he said. “You like talking about things a lot.” He was fidgety and uncomfortable, but he also looked pretty calm, considering.

Kiro regarded him with interest, an idea taking form in his mind. He leaned forward. “Or, consider. We could not split the time.”

Jake frowned. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, we are both attracted to David, and he to us. He is alright with Emily. I am definitely alright with Emily. If you and Emily get along any better, you will give David a heart attack someday.” He watched Jake carefully, trying to gauge his reactions.

Jake’s eyes went round the moment he got what Kiro was suggesting. “But what about…you and me?” he asked, which was not the instinctive rejection Kiro had half expected to hear.

“We are both adults. We’re both reasonably good looking” He shrugged. “There’s lots to be done with a little creativity, and, who knows, if we’re not competing for him…” He let himself trail off and watched to see what pieces Jake put together.

Jake leaned back in his seat, staring into space, a baffled expression on his face. “I’ve honestly never thought about you naked in a…in a sexual way,” he said finally.

“But could you?” Kiro asked. “What if we were not focused on each other?”

“Yeah, I guess I—” he trailed off. “How’s this going to work, if we aren’t doing each other, and David won’t do Emily – wait, what about me and Emily? What about Emily in general?” He looked both interested and guilty about it.

“That would be between you and Emily,” he said, glad that in all of this he had the rock solid certainty of what was between him and Emily. “All of this is contingent on both Emily and David agreeing, obviously. But I wouldn’t suggest it if I didn’t think there was a good chance she would be interested.” He watched Jake still thinking. “Would you really be happier being alone somewhere imagining him being time shared with us over being able to participate?”

Jake grunted, looking annoyed at the first thought already. “Point. But like you said, this is all moot unless David and Emily are in.”

“I’ll talk to Emily,” Kiro promised. He thought Emily wouldn’t need much persuading – she’d missed David being around a lot, and she’d taken to Jake like a house on fire. “Then we will talk to David.”

“The Caps aren’t in town for three more weeks,” Jake said.

“You want to do this over Skype and then have David by himself to stew about it?” Kiro asked, raising an eyebrow.

Jake immediately shook his head. “No. No, you’re right. I just—”

“I’ll talk about this with Emily. You talk about this with Emily. You work on convincing David that you’re not jealous of me and Emily. Then we all get dinner together when he’s here.”

“He’s going to break up with both of us,” Jake muttered, dropping his head into his hands again.

“No, because then Emily will be very mad that the work she put into both of us about the importance of communication in relationships was wasted,” Kiro said. He clapped Jake on the shoulder. “Now eat your sushi. You need the brain food if you’re going to keep up with Emily.”

Jake just groaned.

Kiro grinned and ate his own sushi, feeling a surge of happiness at the possibilities open now. He’d been happy for David, of course, when he’d been able to work things out with Jake again—he could easily remember how David had still pined even when he’d been happy and comfortable with him and Emily. It made sense—and secretly warmed Kiro’s heart a little—that he’d done the same once he’d gone back to David. As for Jake, Kiro hadn’t met him until after things had gone down with David, so he could also say that he’d never thought of Jake sexually, but he could admit to being open to possibilities.

Emily stared at him for a long moment—long enough to make him sweat a little more than he’d expected.

“I do miss David,” she said, a fond smile breaking out across her face. “I was finally figuring out how to make him laugh.” She got up and dropped a kiss on the top of Kiro’s head on her way past. “I’ll talk to Jake and let you know.”

She dragged Jake out a few nights later, the night before an optional practice. They were gone long enough that Kiro had gone to bed, and when he woke up, Jake was staggering out of their guest room, looking a little worse for wear. Emily was placidly eating granola and yogurt in the kitchen, looking fresh and alert. “It’s going to take a lot of talking, boys” she said around a bite, “But I think it’s doable. I’m in.”

Of course, they hadn’t planned on Jake only holding out for two weeks before letting things slip, which was rookie mistake, he told himself as he was fielding an unexpected call from David.

“Tell me exactly what he said,” he said as soothingly as he could into the phone. David sounded almost hysterical, for David, and this was so bad. Oleg was going to kill him.

“I think he’s going to break up with me. Or he thinks I’m cheating on him. Or both,” David said, distraught. “He was asking me how I felt about you and Em. And then he said something about how he wasn’t going to be jealous. And then I hung up on him.”

That explained the frantic beeping of incoming text messages in his ear. “David, I promise you, if you had to look at his dopey face every time you text him back, you would know he would never break up with you.”

“Jake is freaking out big time, so I told him to come over,” Emily said from behind him.

“Was that Emily? It’s late, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have called so late,” David said.

“Davidson, I need you to breathe and think calm thoughts,” Kiro ordered. “Imagine getting to rearrange Jacobson’s closet or something. I’m going to talk to Jake, find out what he was trying to say, and then I will call you back.”

David made a noise. “You’re going to talk to Jake?”

“We talk now,” Kiro told him. “Mostly about the care and feeding of our favorite Davidson.”

David made another noise, and at least he sounded grumpy now. “I don’t need managing.”

“You really, really do,” Kiro told him. “But that’s why you met me. Now hang up, go make yourself toast, and contemplate how lucky you are I am your best friend.”

David made a derisive noise, but he hung up, allowing Kiro to check his messages.

Emily sat on the other end of the couch, her phone in hand. “David? Yes, I heard Kiro’s half. I don’t know why he thinks toast cures everything, but we’re going to have a conversation while Kiro calls Jake. Yeah, babe, it’s fine. Tell me about that book you were reading last time we talked.”

Kiro took a moment to imagine David’s face at being called babe, and then he gave up on reading the messages and just called Jake. “You are as subtle as an elephant,” he said as soon as Jake picked up.

“I know, I’m sorry,” Jake said. He sounded a lot more frantic than David had, which was about what Kiro was expecting. “But you know David doesn’t do subtle. I’m out of practice.”

Kiro silently conceded that point. “Well he thinks that you think he is cheating on you with us and that you want to break up.”

Jake made a low, wounded sound. “How do I fix this?” he said. “Fuck, I’m no good at this.”

“I think we’re going to have to have the conversation now, tonight,” Kiro said. “It would be cruel not to at this point.”

“Over the phone?” Jake sounded panicked.

“No, Skype,” Kiro said. “So we can all see each other. Or maybe some of both, so it’s not like we are all ganging up on him.”

“Fuck, I’m like five minutes out,” Jake said. “You’d better have a better plan than I did.”

Kiro rolled his eyes and nodded at Emily, who had been following along while still talking to David about books, somehow.

“David, honey,” she said when they got to a pause, “Jake is on his way here. He’ll be here in a couple of minutes, and when he gets here we’re all going to get on Skype and have a conversation.” She paused to listen to whatever David was saying. “No baby, I promise you, it’s going to be okay. I think—I’m hoping that you’re going to like this very much.” She smiled. “I think we’ll all like it very much.”

 

+1

“I can’t find Emily’s shoes! Or the to-go bag!” Jake shouted from the kitchen.

David watched him sprint from the kitchen to the bedroom, slowly looked at from the to-go bag sitting by his feet to the shoes Emily was already wearing and the expression on her face. “I’ll be right back,” he said. She nodded absently, but clearly most of her attention was on whatever was happening internally right now. David didn’t really want to know.

He hurried to the bedroom, grabbed Jake by the collar, and hauled him out from where he was digging through the closet for some reason David couldn’t fathom. “Emily is wearing her shoes. I have the to-go bag. You need to get your keys so you can drive us to the hospital.”

Jake looked even more panicked. “Keys! I need my keys!” He pushed past David and thundered towards the kitchen. David stared after him, and then returned to Emily.

“Let’s just get you in the car, and then I’ll come back for Jake,” he said, grabbing the bag in one hand and offering her his other arm to lean on.

She took it with a grateful pat and let David shepherd her out to the car. Not that she really needed shepherding, she knew perfectly well where the car was, but David allowed himself this little bit of hovering.

“I’ll be right back,” he said, once she was in and he’d shoved the bag into the backseat.

Jake was standing in the middle of the kitchen, looking like he was about to cry, which was frankly almost as alarming to David as Emily’s water suddenly breaking. “I can’t find my keys,” he shouted. “Emily’s going to have this baby here because I can’t find my keys, and then Kiro is going to murder me, and oh god she’s having a baby.”

“She is not going to have this baby here; that is why we came up with the plans. Now pull yourself together,” David snapped, taking two long steps forward and giving Jake’s shoulders a shake.

They had a plan, and they were going to follow it, and David was not going to have to help deliver a baby in their living room and that is why they came up with plans. So no one had to panic.

“Did you check your pocket?” David asked when Jake stared at him, having been through this routine before, albeit with less urgency.

Jake slowly patted his pocked and then drew out his keys. “Oh my god,” he whispered. “I can’t believe—”

“No one has time,” David snapped, pushing him towards the garage. “Get going.”

Finally he had Jake loaded in the car as well. Emily, Jake, to-go bag, everyone’s phones, he ran through the checklist in his head, satisfied that it was all there as he jumped into the backseat.

“Oh my god, we forgot to call Kiro!” Jake shouted, stopping halfway out of the garage.

“I already called him, he’s meeting us there. Go,” David gritted out. Kiro would beat them there at this rate even though he had further to go. Emily met his eyes in the rearview mirror and made a resigned face at him. David made himself smile back before he went back to reviewing every part of the plan. Clearly he was going to have to be the sensible one here.

David was sitting in the waiting room rubbing the back of Jake’s neck where he was breathing heavily into the space between his knees when Kiro burst in. “She’s being examined, we can go back in in a minute,” he said before Kiro could speak. “Her bag is already in there. I already filled in all the intake paperwork.”

Kiro stared at him, breathing heavily, and David recognized with resignation the beginnings of the state Jake was in. He abandoned Jake for the moment and went to touch Kiro’s shoulder. “Kiro?”

“I want to see her,” Kiro said.

“In a minute,” David repeated patiently. “She’s being examined and said she would prefer to have a minute alone.”

“Oh my god, we’re going to be parents,” Jake chimed in rather unhelpfully, David thought. When he glanced over, Jake had his eyes locked on Kiro, looking shell-shocked.

“Oh my god, we’re going to be parents,” Kiro agreed. He staggered over and dropped into the chair beside Jake, adopting the same pose.

David stared at them. They’d had nine months to freak out over being parents, and, in any case, it was too late to do anything about it now. “This is not the time to freak out,” he said, going to stand in front of them.

Jake shot him an incredulous look. “I would have bet good money that you’d be freaking out even more than us.”

He had, when they’d first began discussing this, and then again when Emily had confirmed she was pregnant. But. “We have a plan. You made me take birthing classes for this.” He tried not to sound too accusatory. “Emily is about to go through the biggest experience of her life, and it is our job to support her, and we can’t do that if you’re freaking out.” They had breathing exercises to do, a list of questions that the doctor was likely to ask, and David had carefully kept the iPad in the to-go bag charged and loaded up with all of Emily’s favorite movies and books in case it was a long labor.

Kiro started to chuckle. “You are thinking of your phone tree, aren’t you, Davidson?”

David didn’t bother to deny it. It was a good phone tree. He’d color-coded it. “The point is, there’s no new information to freak out over.”

He’d probably freak out when he actually had to deal with a baby, but, well, that was not now. And they had four adults, three sets of grandparents happy to offer help or advice, three multi-million dollar contracts, and all of the safest baby furnishings David had been able to buy before Kiro or Jake could stop him. They’d figure it out.

“Emily will yell at you if you freak out over her,” he said when they both just stared at him. Emily would not yell at him, because he was prepared. Until she was actually in labor, then she might yell at everyone, but that was also in the plan. David was prepared.

Kiro took a deep breath. “You’re right.”

“Never thought you’d be the one telling me to panic less,” Jake muttered. David ignored him.

“Family of Emily Volkov?” a doctor said from behind him.

“That’s us,” David said.

“She’s fine, progressing very well. You can go in now,” the doctor said, looking at them all curiously. David let out a breath he hadn’t known he was holding and heard Kiro and Jake do the same. He led the way down the hallway to Emily’s room.

Kiro swept by him as soon as they got to the door and rushed to Emily’s side to grab her hand. Jake went to drop into the chair on the other side of the bed, leaving David to look at them all from the doorway. He looked at Kiro, trying to figure out what he could do that wouldn’t get him snapped at, Emily reaching out with her free hand to grab at Jake’s fidgety hands, and Jake, looking uncharacteristically drawn and pale, and felt his chest tighten with fondness.

He must have had a funny look on his face because when Emily finally looked away from Kiro, she squinted at him. “I thought you’d be freaking out like Jake here,” she finally said, jerking her head at Jake, ignoring Jake’s “that’s what I said!”

“Someone has to stay level headed and keep things organized,” he said. “Clearly I am the one to do it.” When she started giggling at him and Kiro joined in, he gathered up his dignity and went to unpack the to-go bag. “You’ll be happy when my phone tree saves us a lot of time,” he muttered, but he let her catch his hand on his way past and draw him in so she could press a kiss to his cheek.

“You are officially the birth communication manager,” she said, releasing him, and he smiled.

“I forgot to call my parents!” Jake yelped, and Kiro started cursing from the other side of them as he fumbled for his own phone.

David rolled his eyes. “I texted your parents in the car and said you’d call when you were settled in,” he told Emily, basking a little in her thankful smile. He handed over her phone, which he’d stashed in his pocket. Listening to them start up varying levels of excited or panicked conversations, he went to unpack Emily’s things for the long haul. This was going to require a lot of work and a lot of communication and emotion, and David intended to be ready for it.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [YCMAL Mini Bang Art for Accordion by Monj](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11062605) by [wilde_stallyn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wilde_stallyn/pseuds/wilde_stallyn)




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